Hardware Drum Machine thread

Guys this is just a fun indulgent thread about hardware Drum Machines you have and why you rate them etc. I'll be perfectly honest I'm new to owning a hardware Drum Machine as I just got myself a Yamaha RX-15 on Monday and am loving it!! The sounds are right up my street and its got midi so all good. Anyways over to you lot!!

It's a bit more than a drum machine, but that's mostly how I use it. Got it second-hand some 10 years ago, my very first piece of gear. Fun to manipulate in real time, easy to sequence, full MIDI in and out. Taught myself how to sequence drums with this, and I've used it for lots of different things over the years. It's not exactly a Machinedrum, but I hold it dear to me.

all the TR's, of course.

i love hardware drum machines... but due to money issues i'm selling my TR-626 if anyone's interested... :( £125

it's a wicked machine though - very similar sounding to the 707, seperate outs, trigger out, MIDI etc..will be sad to see it go

My first drum machine was a Roland R8.

The first beat I ever programmed on it was 7 Ways to Jack by Hercules

and then No Way Back by Adonis

and then Reckless by Ice T/Dave Storrs.... (I used the 808 cards for all three, even though 7 ways to jack is a 707, cause I'm just a fuckin bad man like that).

Of all the drum machines Ive owned I think the 909 is the best... I wish the 808 sequencer was the same as the 909's....

There's an R8 for a good price at my local pawn shop, but no cards.

How are the stock sounds?

(Not like I need another drum machine, but it's tempting.)

Thinking about picking up an RX-8 from craigs for $25 for the purpose of circuit bending and the 80's.

This was my first drum machine, the Roland DR-202. I loved it back then (13 years ago maybe?). It's focus was much more on electronic/dance type sounds.

So then I wanted some more standard drum sounds, and so I got the DR-770. At the time, I also loved this one (again, about 12 years ago)

Then software exploded, and having these became kind of obsolete.

Now I have a Machinedrum SPS-1 mki, and I love it. If I had the money I would have gotten the UW mkii, but I am broke. I saw this one on craigslist for a great price, and couldn't pass it up.

I really enjoy the onboard sequencing and parameter locks, but my style of drum programming tends to require more flexibility in shifting patterns and sounds on the fly, so I've been constructing drumracks in Ableton, along with max4live patches so that I can easily sequence the MD with standard piano roll sequencing, and be able to trigger sound variations on the fly. It's taking a long time to make all of the max4live interfaces though... just tedious to put in all of the MIDI cc data for each machine. But now I have it set up so I can play notes on the piano roll, and the tuning of the drum changes (so I can make melodies with the bass drum, for example).

Like I said, I really like jamming out on the MD, as you can get more wild results from it that way, but that usually lends itself to just recording audio and cutting it up afterwards... but it's nice, I can either do that, or sequence it through ableton... totally different workflows/approaches/results. At the end of the day though, I love the MD sound. I think I'd only really use the UW to do resampling of the outputs... since I'm not doing solo sets with the MD, it doesn't make a lot of sense to load samples into, when I could do the same thing in Ableton.

I may be on the verge of procuring a Korg DDD1. Sounds aren't as strong as the TRs but it has separate outs, good midi spec and reasonable editing ability plus I could combine it with my RX-15.

I just finished my sammichSID, it has a C64 dumsynth + sequencer in it. really cool!

I have an MFB-522:

It's on the cheap side. Been thinking getting something better but I would like something which has analog circuitry and which I can control with CV/Gate as well as MIDI.

I have a TR-606, very powerful little analog box.

i don't think any other drum machine can beat the hi-hats on 606, even the 808's aren't as smooth.

  On 6/15/2012 at 2:30 AM, missingsense said:

I just finished my sammichSID, it has a C64 dumsynth + sequencer in it. really cool!

Do you have any sound samples yet? I'd love to hear it in action.

I've had fun playing a bit with this a couple of times at a friend's studio:

Has anyone here used the Metasonix D1000?

Here's what I got:

Roland TR606

Roland TR707

Roland TR808 modified with a CHD midi kit

Roland TR808 modified with ability to turn clap reverb off, and three audio inputs you can use to substitute the noise source of the claps reverb, hats, cymbals, snare and toms (whatever uses the TR808 white noise circuit)

Roland TR909

Roland CR78

Elektron Machinedrum SPS-1, the original version with no sampling feature.

The 808s are my favourite. The Machinedrum gets the least use, I still like it though, but find it's not as easy to fit into my tracks.

I used to own a Jomox XBase 999, but ended up selling it. I didn't like the interface, kit was buggy and even locked up once or twice (requiring a power cycle). It sounded very punchy which I liked, but somehow noisy and too raw for me.

The 909 is one of the hottest (audio volume wise, although it looks sexy too) things in the studio. I have to turn it down a lot compared to most of the other things.

  On 6/15/2012 at 12:30 PM, kokeboka said:

  On 6/15/2012 at 2:30 AM, missingsense said:

I just finished my sammichSID, it has a C64 dumsynth + sequencer in it. really cool!

 

Do you have any sound samples yet? I'd love to hear it in action.

 

I've had fun playing a bit with this a couple of times at a friend's studio:

 

 

 

Has anyone here used the Metasonix D1000?

man I want to get some vermona kit like that.

I'm going to try and do some stuff with it, but I accidentally blew up the LCD during the build process..... trying to sort out a new screen now so I don't have to rely on the MIDI editor.

played with it a tiny bit with it before the accident and it was really nice.. here check this demo:

  On 6/15/2012 at 11:56 AM, Mcdergbit said:

I have a TR-606, very powerful little analog box.

 

i don't think any other drum machine can beat the hi-hats on 606, even the 808's aren't as smooth.

eh? 606 hh's and cymb's can be very hissy and harsh and not smooth at all !?

i think the 808 is by far the best sounding and smoothest TR of the lot, imho.

606 has the best hats imo

Drum machines are taking over my studio lately. I'm an addict at this point.

Boss DR-55

Boss DR-110

Boss DR-660 (borrowing)

Boss DR-770

MF Berlin MFB-502

Roland TR-505

Roland TR-606 (borrowing for the last 10 years)

Roland TR-707

(Now if I could just get the next two TRs)

Jomox M-Base

Pearl DRX-1

Boss SP-202 + record collection

Also occasionally use the Roland JV-1080's drum sounds.

Honorable mention: Korg X-911

Eyeing at $120.00 Roland R8 and $60.00 Boss DR-660 at the pawn shop right now.

  On 6/15/2012 at 6:02 PM, sirch said:

  On 6/15/2012 at 11:56 AM, Mcdergbit said:

I have a TR-606, very powerful little analog box.

 

i don't think any other drum machine can beat the hi-hats on 606, even the 808's aren't as smooth.

 

eh? 606 hh's and cymb's can be very hissy and harsh and not smooth at all !?

 

i think the 808 is by far the best sounding and smoothest TR of the lot, imho.

Gotta agree with that. I had a 606 for a weekend and sold it back to the owner lol. Dumb really as now they go for silly money.

  On 6/15/2012 at 6:50 PM, Promo said:

  On 6/15/2012 at 6:02 PM, sirch said:

  On 6/15/2012 at 11:56 AM, Mcdergbit said:

I have a TR-606, very powerful little analog box.

 

i don't think any other drum machine can beat the hi-hats on 606, even the 808's aren't as smooth.

 

eh? 606 hh's and cymb's can be very hissy and harsh and not smooth at all !?

 

i think the 808 is by far the best sounding and smoothest TR of the lot, imho.

Gotta agree with that. I had a 606 for a weekend and sold it back to the owner lol. Dumb really as now they go for silly money.

808 are def a safer bet for hi-hats and are plastered all around modern music. Buuuut, I have to agree w/BCM that the 606 has the best hats in terms of character though, they sit very well in the mix of most things with little effort. Maybe something to cut the really high end off the open hat. I also like the 606's snare alot more than the 808.

I would really like to try a Lynn LM-1, has anyone here tried one? Probably one of my favorite machines for kick/snare, just by hearing it in old tracks.

i miss this so much

  On 6/15/2012 at 7:45 PM, oscillik said:

i miss this so much

 

  On 6/15/2012 at 7:52 PM, Audioblysk said:

  On 6/15/2012 at 7:45 PM, oscillik said:

i miss this so much

 

 

Nice day for it...

I have my trusty MK I. It doesn't have the (limited) sample capability of the MK II, and can be a little abstract with it's menu screens, but for sheer experimentation it can't be beat.

MPC1000. Tricked out with a RAM upgrade, a 500GB internal HD and the fabled JJOS, and it sings like an angel (even if it doesn't look like one).

best hats imho(mo) Boss DR-110